Challenges

October 21, 2010 at 9:48 am

The last few days have not gone as planned. Tuesday, I decided to take a bath, clean the house up, write, and read. I accomplished two things off that list and one of them twice. After my bath, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to clean and rearrange my entire bedroom. I foolishly put on black clothing, black Nike pants and a black top. Within an hour I was covered from head to toe in spider webs and dust – needless to say my room needed attention! Once I’d completed the dusting and clearing of spider webs behind and under furniture, I took another shower! Then I finished putting things to rights in my room. That was my Tuesday!

Yesterday, I thought my room is clean, I had a good nights sleep, so I think I will write today. I began foolishly again and set my goals for the day too high! I thought let’s double our current word count. That didn’t happen. I barely added a hundred words! I was all ready to go, but the words were NOT coming. I was battling with scenes and trying to figure out just the right way to get them out there.

Example: In my current WIP the Heroine’s mother is divorced, she remarried, and divorces again. Now, I do not want to encourage divorce, but it is a real everyday thing that we deal with. If I begin the first chapter with the Heroine’s parents married and later her mother has a different last name that might confuse the readers. The fact does remain that the Heroine’s parents ARE divorced.

The other issue is a prologue. I’ve read the pro’s and con’s of a prologue and I am looking for a way into the story without providing a prologue, yet at the same time I believe the prologue would solve my “back in time” problem. I do not want the readers to feel as if the Heroine is always reflecting, always lost in thought – even though she does have her head in the clouds most the time.

The alternative I finally came up with yesterday was to add a therapist to the character line up. Now, I’m looking for away to slide her in and see if it will effectively replace a prologue or not. I would not want my work to be discarded because it has a prologue and I’m a newbie to the publishing industry. Yet, I’m not fully convinced that my story does not need one.

I’ve a few options to play with and see what I can do. While I’ve been mulling these things over, I’ve organized files on my computer and off my computer into binders. I also have one very clean bedroom.

I tell you about this because you may have a great story to tell, you may be working your way through it, but challenges will arise. Don’t let them knock you down. Keep trying. If God has placed a story on your heart, he’ll help you find a way to get it out there.

In Him,

~T~